One year after the teen girl who calls herself Zhavia walked into the OC Hit Factory in search of a vocal coach to help her polish her innate, impressive talent, the 16-year-old will sing for a record deal and other career-launching honors in the finale of the Fox series “The Four: Battle for Stardom” on Thursday, Feb. 8.

Zhavia, who in addition to obscuring her last name also demurs when asked where in Orange County she lives, had grown up in a musical family. Her mother sang in a metal band, her father worked in rhythm and blues.

So Zhavia (pronounced “Zhuh-VI-uh”) knew what she wanted to do, and that didn’t especially include reaching for stardom through one of the TV singing competition shows.

“The studio that I go to, I went there one day, and I didn’t even know that they were holding auditions for ‘The Four,'” she says. “I just saw a bunch of people at the studio and went, ‘What’s going on,’ you know?

OC Hit Factory owner Thomas Barsoe nudged her to try out for the producers who were at his talent development and production facility in the Union Market at the District shopping center in Tustin, said both Zhavia and Barsoe, who is also her manager.

“So I went ‘Sure,’ and I gathered a few songs on the spot that I was like, ‘OK, I can just sing these for them real quick, whatever,'” she said. “I went in not really having any intentions or thoughts about the show because I didn’t even know about it. They ended up loving me.”

That’s been the effect Zhavia has often had on those who’ve heard her sing and seen her perform, Barsoe says.

“She contacted one of our vocal coaches about doing some vocal lessons, and my vocal coach came in and said, ‘You’ve got to hear this girl,’ ” Barsoe says. “I heard one note and right away I knew she was special.”

The judges on “The Four” – hip-hop artist P. Diddy, singer Meghan Trainor, DJ Khaled, and record producer Charlie Walk – and host Fergie of the Black-Eyed Peas were equally startled by the maturity of Zhavia’s voice and personality when she made her debut on the show, singing a cover of Khalid’s “Location” on Jan. 4.

Her style was impressive – she describes her music as a mix of R&B, reggae, hip-hop and jazz – and her look, which includes long dreadlocks her mother did for her, unique.

She also didn’t look a bit nervous, and she says Wednesday that’s never really been one to get butterflies on stage.

“I don’t really get anxiety when it comes to performing and all that,” Zhavia says. “I get a sense of, like, peace from knowing that God will take care of me and whatever needs to happen will happen.

“So I just calm myself and do my best and try to enjoy the moment.”

Part of that’s her upbringing, parents who made music made her comfortable in that world, and once their marriage broke up there were bigger things to deal with than stage fright.

“I was always around music, whether it was going to the studio, or going to band practice, or watching them do their thing, you know what I mean?” Zhavia says. ““And music was something that brought our family together and we all kind of related to.

“I just worked toward this my whole life.”

So focused was she on how she saw herself succeeding that Barsoe says Zhavia and her mother Bobbi Jo Black initially told him they wanted to decline the show’s invitation to her to compete.

“We knew that she didn’t want to do the whole TV show standing with a number on her stomach,” he says. “That’s not her at all.”

But when he learned how the show would work – unlike “American Idol,” “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent,” the auditions are not part of it – Barsoe says he tried one last time to show her how it might benefit her, taking her to a production event held by Fox in Los Angeles on a big stage with great sound and plenty of praise from the producers.

Zhavia says one of the things that impressed her most about “The Four” is that the winner gets a contract with Republic Records, “which made me really happy because my whole life I’ve been wanting to sign with Republic Records,” home to two of her favorite artists, Post Malone and Jessie J.

“Win or lose, this show has given me a platform to show who I am as an artist, and gain an amazing fan base, and hopefully many opportunities for me,”

“It sounds so corny right now but her potential is limitless,” says Barsoe, who says the focus “The Four” has put on his business has created what he and his staff call “the Zhavia effect,” a huge increase in interest from prospective musicians.

“She will 100 percent be the next big superstar,” he says. “She’s destined to do this.”

Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County Register. He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.